Principles of Creative and

Lateral thinking

The Human Brain

• “A self organising, self patterning system”

• A good pattern maker but a poor pattern breaker - thus:

• Creativity = the art of breaking patterns, habits and certainties

• Left Brain vs Right Brain

Left: logical, analytical, process driven, risk averse

Right: Emotional, artistic,Playful, Humorous, “Innocent”

Ideal = Whole Brain thinking

Creativity: towards a definition

• “To bring into being through force of imagination”

Chambers English Dictionary

• “Imaginative processes with outcomes” Sir Ken Robinson

• “Generating new ideas which are practical, of value, and can be

implemented to bring about an improved product or service”

• “The creation of something new and useful for your business”

• Brainstorming; Greenhousing; River Jumping; Lateral Thinking

Are we all creative?

• YES!………….

• Until……….

• We get to work……….!!

Gorilla Spotting!(Professor Richard Wiseman: 2004)

• We all have “Blind Spots”: sometimes we miss the obvious!

Creativity is not always about “wild and whacky” ideas……

• Be “mindful” of a problem; don’t focus or forget it – be aware and open to opportunities….. chance favours the open mind

• A “Primed Brain” + Time + Freedom = “Eureka” moments

• “The seeds of great discovery are constantly floating around us, but they only take root in minds well prepared to receive them”

Joseph Henry

Lateral Thinking

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LATERAL THINKING

"You cannot dig a hole in a different

place by digging the same hole

deeper"

This means that trying harder in the same

direction may not be as useful as changing

direction. Effort in the same direction

(approach) will not necessarily succeed.

13

LATERAL THINKING

"Lateral Thinking is for changing

concepts and perceptions"

With logic you start out with certain

ingredients just as in playing chess you start

out with given pieces. But what are those

pieces? In most real life situations the

pieces are not given, we just assume they

are there.

14

LATERAL THINKING

"The brain as a self-organizing information system forms asymmetric patterns.”

In such systems there is a mathematical need for moving across patterns. The tools and processes of lateral thinking are designed to achieve such 'lateral' movement. The tools are based on an understanding of self-organising information systems.

15

LATERAL THINKING

"In any self-organizing system there is

a need to escape from a local

optimum in order to move towards

a more global optimum.”

The techniques of lateral thinking, such as

provocation, are designed to help that

change.

The Basics Behind

Lateral Thinking

• We are hardwired to be UN-creative.

• We need formal tools for breaking out of patterned thinking.

• Everyone can learn how to be more creative

• Lateral Thinking gives you the power to create ideas on

demand

Suggest Lateral

Thinking If You Hear…

any of these

seven common comments

(The cartoons by Bob Thaves.)

Suggest Lateral

Thinking If You Hear…

1. Management shoots down all of our ideas.

Because Lateral

Thinking Will

Give managers the tools to encourage and reward the creative EFFORT that must become a habit before you can get consistently innovative results.

Give employees the tools to assess and improve ideas before submitting them.

Suggest Lateral

Thinking If You Hear…

2. Creative people are a nuisance. They’re always getting out of line.

Because Lateral

Thinking Will

Teach managers how to perceive creative intrusions as a valuable tool for checking blind spots and biases. Creative ideas are often jarring.

Give collaborative employees the tools to generate creative ideas on demand. You do not have to rely on a flock of born rebels to “buck the system.”

Suggest Lateral

Thinking If You Hear…

3. We don’t have time to go through all that trial and error.

Because Lateral

Thinking Will

Teach managers to be alert for new opportunities at every stage as ideas are explored.

Give employees tools that speed up the innovation process.

Suggest Lateral

Thinking If You Hear…

4. Creative people are so off-the-wall. Their ideas are never feasible.

Because Lateral

Thinking Will

Give everyone the tools of provocation and movement so they know how to get value from initially unworkable ideas.

Teach everyone how to harvest, tailor, and shape ideas to make them more practical.

Suggest Lateral

Thinking If You Hear…

5. This company doesn’t see mistakes as progress. We quit too soon.

Because Lateral

Thinking Will

Give everyone tools to assess and minimize risk.

Teach everyone how to perceive failures as necessary steps in the creative process.

Enable everyone to learn from their mistakes.

Suggest Lateral

Thinking If You Hear…

6. We don’t know what to be creative about.

Because Lateral

Thinking Will

Teach all how to develop and work on a Creative Hit List.

Suggest Lateral

Thinking If You Hear…

7. We don’t need new ideas. We’re already aligned about what we’re doing/where we’re going/how to get there.

Because Lateral

Thinking Will

Teach everyone the absolute necessity of applying the creative process continuously to every strategy, process, assumption, product, and practice, in our rapidly changing world.

Lateral Thinking:

Four Step ProcessEdward de Bono’s

Creative Thinking Process

Results: New

Ideas

Select & Define

FocusCapture & Work

with Output

Generate

Ideas

GET STARTED

Vertical v. Lateral

Thinking• V = Selective L = Generative

• V = Moves in one direction

L = Moves to generate direction

• V = Analytical L = Provocative

• V = Sequential L = Makes jumps

• V = Each step correct L = Not so

Vertical v. Lateral

Thinking

• V = Excludes irrelevant

L = Chance intrusions

• V = Classification and labels fixed L = Not so

• V = Moves in one direction

L = Moves to generate direction

• V = Most likely L = Least likely

• V = Finite process L = probabilistic one

Vertical v. Lateral

ThinkingWith vertical thinking one uses information

for its own sake to in order to move forward

to a solution.

With lateral thinking one uses information not

for its own sake but provocatively in order

to bring about repatterning.

Basic Nature of Lateral Thinking

• Concerned with changing patterns

• In a self-maximizing system with a memory

the arrangement of information must always

be less than the best possible arrangement

• Both an attitude and a method of using

information

• Never a judgment

4 Lines

4 Lines

4 Lines

Conceptual Blockbusting

James L. Adams

Conceptual blocks

Conceptual blocks are mental walls

which block the problem-solver from

correctly perceiving a problem or

conceiving its solution.

Conceptual Blocks

• Perceptual

• Cultural

• Environmental

• Emotional

• Intellectual

• Expressive

Cultural Blocks• Fantasy and reflection are a waste of time lazy,

even crazy.

• Playfulness is for children only

• Problem solving is a serious business and humor is out of place

• Reason, logic numbers utility, Practicality are good; feeling, intuition, qualitative judgments, pleasure are bad

• Tradition is preferable to change

• Any problem can be solved by scientific thinking and lots of money

• Taboos

Environmental Blocks

• Lack of cooperation and trust of colleagues

• Autocratic boss who values only his own

ideas; does not reward others

• Distractions – phone, easy intrusions

• Lack of support to bring ideas into action

Perceptual Blocks

• Difficulty in isolation the problem

• Tendency to delimit the problem too closely

• Inability to see the problem from various

viewpoints

• Seeing what you expect to see; Stereotyping

• Saturation

• Failure to utilize all sensory inputs

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CONCLUSIONS

• Small risks bring small threats but

small opportunities.

• Large risks bring large

opportunities but large threats.

• While we are alive, we cannot

avoid risk.

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THE BIGGEST RISK

“It is not enough to think outside the box. We must learn to live outside the box.”

A competitor, usual or unexpected, may accept a bigger risk than we have, manage the threats and realize the opportunities.

Each of us has 6.3 billion potential customers and 6.3 billion competitors.

LATERAL THINKING

• IS NOT SEQUENTIAL - FREQUENTLY JUMPS FROM

POINT TO POINT -- THEN STOPPING TO

“COALESCE”

• DOES NOT HAVE TO BE CORRECT AT EVERY

POINT. A REDICULOUS CONCEPT IS OFTEN

NECESSARY TO GIVE A NEW ALIGNMENT

• IS NOT RESTRICTED BY RELEVENT

INFORMATION -- USES A RANDOM APPROACH TO

PERTURB THE SYSTEM AND BRING CHANGE

• JUDGEMENT IS NOT ALLOWED!!!!

LATERAL THINKING

• FOLLOWING

IDEAS ARE

TAKEN FROM

JUMP START

YOUR BRAIN • BY DOUG HALL, 1996

JUMP START YOUR BRAIN

CONCEPTS

• FUN IS FUNDAMENTAL

• RESPECT THE NEW BORN

• REALITY IS NOT RELEVANT

• YOU HAVE TO SWING A LOG TO

MAKE A HOME RUN

HALL’S QUESTIONS

• WHAT WOULD BE THE SIMPLE SOLUTION

• WHAT WOULD BE THE MOST REDICULOUS

SOLUTION

• WHAT WOULD AROUSE CURIOSITY

• WHAT WOULD TURN WEAKNESSES TO

STRENGTHS

• WHAT WOULD BE MOST COURAGEOUS

SOLUTION

• WHAT WOULD BE FARTHEST REMOVED FROM

THE COMPETITION

B.O.S.

BRAIN OPERATING SYSTEM

• PEOPLE THINK IN

DIFFERENT WAYS

– REALIST

– BUILDER

– DREAMER

B.O.S. SCORES

• REALIST

– - SCORE OF 0=56

• BUILDER

– - SCORE OF 56-67

• DREAMER

– - SCORE OF 68-100

REALIST

• PREFERS IDEAS THAT ARE A

VARIATION ON A FAMILIAR THEME.

HAS THE ABILITY TO GRASP ISSUES;

IS MOST CREATIVE WHEN

OPERATING ON AN INCREMENTAL

LEVEL; IS GOOD IN REACTING TO

OTHER IDEAS; LIKES TO WORK IN A

STRUCTURED ENVIRONMENT

BUILDER

• SEES ALL ASPECTS OF A SITUATION

AND SEES WHAT OTHERS MISS;

CONNECTS THE DOTS AND MAKES

POSSIBLE THE EXISTENCE OF

EXTREMES; AT HOME IN BOTH

STRUCTURED AND UNSTRUCTURED

ENVIRONMENTS; CAN HELP AN IDEA

GROW FROM AN ACORN TO A TREE.

DREAMER

• SEES WHAT OTHRS DO NOT SEE;

WORKS BEST WITHOUT STRUCTURE;

LIKES THE LOOK, FEEL AND

ELEGANCE OF AN IDEA, WITHOUT

RELEVENCE TO REALITY; IS OFTEN

THE CATYLST FOR OTHER TYPES OF

THINKERS; MAKES UP LESS THAN

15% OF THE POPULATION

THE ART OF THINKING

• PEOPLE THINK IN

DIFFERENT WAYS AND THE

SAME PERSON MAY USE

DIFFERENT THOUGHT

PROCESSES IN DIFFERENT

SITUATIONS. MOST PEOPLE

TEND TO FAVOR ONE OR

TWO MODES AND ONLY A

FEW USE MORE THAN TWO

Lateral Thinking

• Alternatives: Use concepts to breed new ideas

• Focus: Sharpen or change your focus to improve your creative efforts

• Challenge: Break free from the limits of accepted ways of operating

• Random Entry: Use unconnected input to open new lines of thinking

• Provocation: Move from a provocative statement to useful ideas

• Harvesting: Select the best of early ideas and shape them into useable approaches

• Treatment of Ideas: How to develop ideas and shape them to fit an organization or situation Edward de

Bono

Benefits of Lateral Thinking

• Constructively challenge the status quo to enable new ideas to surface

• Find and build on the concept behind an idea to create more ideas

• Solve problems in ways that don’t initially come to mind

• Use alternatives to liberate and harness your creative energy

• Turn problems into opportunities

• Select the best alternate ideas and implement them